>how would anyone ever be able to tell
>if a new computer they were ordering would be able to generate fractals
>with Fractint to the higher resolutions?

About the only sure way that I can think of is to find someone
who owns a recent machine that has been shown to create
higher resolution fractals under Fractint. Then use Craig's list
or eBay to purchase a machine that has that exact video card in it.


I know that it is possible to put a second video card into a computer,
so in theory one could install an older card that supported the higher
resolution DOS video modes into a computer that has a video card
that does not support these video modes. Newer computers now
have different connectors to plug cards into, so the new machine
needs to have a connector compatible with the older video card
being installed into the new computer.

However, I do not know how to force 'switching' between these video
cards -- or if that is even possible in all cases.

One other problem with video 'cards' is that often, current computers
are manufactured with their video and audio chip sets on the main
system board for cost reasons. Being able to 'turn off' these factory
built-in functions and to get Windows to recognize a newly-installed
card to replace these functions takes detailed knowledge and
in some cases cannot be done at all.


I note that Sylvie Gallet says that Windows Vista appears to
not support the DOS version of Fractint. I pasted her message
below my signature.


Some good news is that there is a 'Fractint for Windows'
being worked on right now and a fairly stable beta is available.

It is intended to work on essentially any current computer's
video card and on any version of Windows. This is because it
writes to the video card using Windows drivers and graphics
modes, not DOS graphics modes.


The current beta (beta 5) is a first pass at creating a fully windowed
version of Fractint. The current user interface is simply the DOS
version text windows displayed in their current DOS form with
the image being calculated resizing the window as needed.
Keyboard commands work normally.

The current 'Fractint for Windows' does not
have mouse support, but movement of the zoom box
and cursors can be done using the arrow keys (with and
without the key being held down.)

Richard of the Fractint Development Team did a lot of work
to get the this functionality working under windows.


I myself have not used beta 5 'Fractint for Windows' very much,
but judging from the postings on [Fractint] from others, there are
people using it successfully. Further development is planned.


Richard's FractInt for Windows (Beta 5) 2007-02-18:
http://tinyurl.com/2wqa7r

You can uninstall beta 4 or you can install beta 5
over top of beta 4.
If you install over top, beta 4 will be upgraded to beta 5.


The list of known existing bugs in beta 5 Fractint for
Windows is:

>This file describes known issues in this release, from oldest to newest:
>There is no sound output support.
>There is no mouse support. Panning and zooming is by keyboard only.

>Video modes with pixel dimensions other than 4/3 aspect ratio assume
>non-square pixels. The images all render fine, but they appear stretched
>or squashed. The choice of resolutions in fractint.cfg reflect this.

>With debugflag=10000, error messages are reported for disk video mode when:
>start fractint, pick any disk video mode (e.g. 320x200),
>let it render, wait for completion, then go to the screen,
>change 320 to 32, submit it. This problem is present in the DOS fractint.

><\> or or just redraws the current image instead of moving
>backwards through the history buffer.


One other item. You say:

> I have a couple of old machines I hang onto just because
> I can push the resolution, for printing.

Are you familiar with Fractint's Disk 'Video' Modes?

These allow you to create high resolution images without
them being written to the video card. I use this feature
every day to create Jim Muth's Fractal of the Day at a
resolution of 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024 with DOS Fractint.

This feature completely gets around having to have a
video card show the image while it is being calculated.

My older computer with DOS Fractint will display images this large,
but only if they take up the entire screen. The images no longer
calculate or are corrupted if I try to shrink the image into
a window to allow me to look at email, etc.

So I simply use a Fractint Disk 'Video' Mode to calculate
my larger images. Since the window showing the image
calculation is simply a text status window I am able to
shrink it to a small window and read my email,
surf the web, etc. When Fractint's status window says,
"The image has been completed" I can maximize the window
to full screen and save the image and reload it into a
visible video mode in DOS Fractint on my older machine.

My newer machine would require me to view the large image
that I calculated using Disk Video Mode using a different image
viewing program. This is not too great a problem since you
can keep both the image viewing program and Fractint for
Windows open and running at the same time.

Fractint's documentation has more information about Disk
Video Modes. You can even define your own X and Y
resolutions of Disk Video Modes. I have done this and it
works well. Please ask me if you have any further questions
about Disk Video Mode.


Incidentally, I just tested adding a new set of X and Y
resolutions in a Disk Video Mode of Richard's beta 5
version of Fractint for Windows. I added 2048 x 1536
pixels. It created the image correctly and I viewed it
in an image viewing program.


What resolution do you create your images at in order to
print them? <---<<


Is this info of any use to you? <---<<

- Hal Lane

#########################
# hallane@earthlink.net #
#########################

Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:29:56 +0100
From: Sylvie Gallet
Subject: [Fractint] Fractint (DOS) and Windows Vista
To: Liste Fractint

Hi All,
I just got a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium and I'm
still in the process of customizing it and installing my favorite softs.

Bad news: Fractint for DOS won't run, all I get is an error msg saying
"This system does not support fullscreen mode. Choose 'Close'to
terminate the application."

Cheers,
- Sylvie

######################################################
-----Original Message-----
From: Kim Hagar [mailto:bkhagar@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 12:28 PM
To: Hal Lane
Subject: Re: Did you ever get any replies to your question?

No, I didn't, Hal, and was sure hoping to! I have a
couple of old machines I hang onto just because I can
push the resolution, for printing. My brand new
machine at work, which is a REAL work horse,
cannot do it! I just don't know how to find out,
as you can imagine! As Fractint is one thing I LOVE
to work with, I'd really hate to invest in a machine
that can't do the job! Funny how newer isn't always
better!

Thanks! Hope somebody knows! I'll keep looking!

Kim

Hal Lane wrote:
>>Kim, Did you ever get any replies to your question?

>>I discovered that the highest resolution that my
>>new machine will support Fractint at is 640 x 480. :-(

Kim wrote:
--------------
>>>I DO want to know, however, how would anyone ever be able to tell
>>>if a new computer they were ordering would be able to generate fractals
>>>with Fractint to the higher resolutions? I want a new computer but not to
>>>detriment!

>>>Thanks for any suggestions!

>>>Kim
#########################################################3
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